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As I drive home from work every day in Houston, TX I am greeted by the entrancing voice of Dr. John Lienhard, now an Emeritus Professor of Mechanical Engineering and History at the University of Houston.

The concept of the mole has always been a challenging topic for myself and my students. The challenge comes in part when we try to imagine 6.02 x 1023 of anything. Another challenge for some students is the math and theory behind this number and concept. I have tweaked an activity to help guide my students to an understanding of these concepts.

Do you require your students to learn all the element names and symbols? Do your students struggle with chemical nomenclature, chemical equations, or stoichiometry? You may want to consider getting them back to the basics.

In this blog post I will discuss an interview with Dr. Richard Feynman relating to magnets that explores the concept of "why?" questions in science. You will find a links to a blog post and a transcript of the interview along with ideas for how I use the video in IB Chemistry.

The American Association of Chemistry Teachers (AACT) has just made a major announcement. The first AACT Chemistry Teacher of the Year Awards have just opened their nomination process. Awards will be given to teachers in each of three levels of chemistry education. One for K-5 teachers of science, one for grade 6-8 teachers of physical science, and one for high school chemistry teachers.

I have tried many different methods to demonstrate or perform displacement reactions over the years with mixed results regarding one particular metal, aluminium. Based upon my experience, the behavior of aluminium in displacement reactions often confuses students.

Like many schools, this year my school went 1:1. Each of our students was issued an 11 inch Chromebook with a webcam. Our upperclassmen have the the older Samsung models with a front-facing webcam and our underclassmen have the new Lenovo N22/23 models with a flippable webcam. I am a “jump in head first” type of person so I decided to go completely paperless this year. Now that I am halfway through the year (and still paperless!), I wanted to share what has been working well for me and where the snags have been.

Whether you are looking to add a bit more scientific inquiry to your labs or simply looking for a great stoichiometry lab that can be added to your collection, I encourage you to try something like this with your students!